We've posted several 'Scanimation'/barrier grid animation books on the Animated Review in the past. The technique requires a special acetate foil to be passed back and forth across an image seemingly bringing it to life. We love that with the aide of interactive and magical optical effects you can breath new life into a printed book, a format which is quickly being usurped by digital variations.

'Little Zoo' by Kveten is a wonderful example of how barrier grid animation can add a new level of charm and intrigue into an otherwise simple publication. We're unaware if this book is available for purchase anywhere, but we'll update this post should we find it up for sale.

Disney and Barneys New York have announced an interesting cooperative venture. Together the two will be presenting the store’s Holiday campaign, entitled ‘Electric Holiday’.

Due to be unveiled in November, Barneys’ Madison Avenue flagship store will feature a electric light show and a moving art short film in the window displays that will turn Disney’s most iconic characters into runway supermodels.

The concept centres around Minnie Mouse’s fantasy to be at the Paris shows. There she comes across key Disney characters all decked out in designer clothes. Mickey is dressed by Nicolas Ghesquière for Balenciaga, Minnie by Alber Elbaz for Lanvin, Goofy by Olivier Rousteing for Balmain, Daisy by Dolce & Gabbana, Cruella by Rick Owens, Princess Tiana by Proenza Schouler and Snow White by Peter Copping for Nina Ricci.

Stephen Irwin's 'Hidden Place' animation screened last April as part of channel 4's short film showcase 'Random Acts'. We saw Stephen's animated film 'Moxie' as part of the BAA Public Choice Award 2012 back in February and 'Hidden Place' is a continuation of a theme, with a similar experimental scratchy madness to the aesthetic.

We've posted other pieces of 'Random Acts' animation on the Animated Review, most recently Max Hattler's 'Shift' and Kid Acne's 'Zebra Face' animated series. Most of the 'Random Acts' shown are live action shorts so it's always exciting when they screen an animated piece... we're looking forward to seeing what will come next.

Yasuyuki Yoshida, once a professional dancer, is now paving a way as a successful designer and director. In 'Exit Through', created for Tokyo based audio/visual label BRDG, is packed with rapid moving layers of animation and random live action.

Motion designer Adam Glucksman, as a way of demonstrating his creative talents to prospective clients, has devised an impressive business card. Each business card is actually a laser-etched still from his short animated film 'Vavohu', which is a "meditation on the notion of cosmogenesis".

We've posted 'Vavohu' below, but it's also worth heading over to Adam's blog where there’s behind the scenes insight into the painstaking process.

Alfred Steiner, an Ohio born artist, creates wonderfully freakish watercolour painting which are so detailed they look more like collaged photography. Many of Steiners works feature popular cartoon characters re-constructed using sexual organs, body parts, animals and everyday objects. Here we've posted SpongeBob SquarePants, Mickey Mouse, Maggie Simpsons and Yosemite Sam, but if you head over to Stenier's website there are many more Frankenstein monstrosities to be seen.

Alfred Steiner has a new exhibition opening at the Poulsen Gallery Copenhagen in early November. As part of the artist profile on the Poulsen website Steiner talks about his childhood experiences which have since helped shape his work:

"I spent my elementary school years in rural Ohio—in a big pile of animal parts. My best friend's dad had a VCR with only three VHS tapes, one of which was The Texas Chainsaw Massacre. It was my favorite, and not just because the fictional events took place on the day I was born. There's a scene in it where one of the nubile victims stumbles into a room strewn with bones—mostly animal—at once terrifying and rustic in the yellow Texas sun. Not to be outdone, my friend and I discovered a boneyard ourselves while roaming a nearby farm, and harvested a few cow skulls that we cleaned with bleach. There was also a fur dealer who lived nearby in a hovel just past the creek. In our only encounter, I watched this man enthusiastically carve out the heart of a fox and hand it to me. But even that experience didn't prepare me to find a severed blue eye staring back at me from the mailbox. Lowering the door of the box, I found the milky, apple-sized sphere suspended in a jar of formaldehyde. It was an unsolicited gift from our veterinarian, who was indulging my predilection for the anatomical. Pressing my memory for other seminal experiences involving entrails, I come up empty. But I do remember my friend telling me that his dad had a fourth videotape: Adult Cartoons."

Swedish illustrator/animator Jacob Stålhammar created the basic storyline to 'The Cats On Mars' back in 2004. With no clear plan, but hoping to turn the premise into a children's book or animated film, It wasn't until 2010 that the short opened at Göteborg International Film Festival.

Through a combination of public domain music found in old commercials at the Prelinger Archives, gouache on cardboard technique gleamed from John.K's blog, looped 1930's sound clips, adding grain and noise, an old school 4:3 ratio, Dr Seuss inspired rhyming and limited animation this modern children’s fable captures a stylised 1950's faux-retro feel.

Director Patrick Boivin has teamed up with Aardman for this engaging, action packed, kinetic stop-motion advert for Nike football cleats starring a marionette version of footballer Andrés Iniesta. South Korea’s Coolrain created the puppet, and Wieden+Kennedy was the agency involved.

Lionsgate Entertainment has announced that a 23-DVD 'Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles' gift set will be available from November 13th. They're releasing the complete classic series, all 10 seasons, packaged inside an exclusive, plastic moulded collectible "party van" that passionate fans will be sure to want. Sadly it looks like it might be a USA release only, hopefully a region 2 UK box set will follow soon after... we'd buy it!

Here is the blurb from the box:

"Cowabunga! Collect the Complete TMNT Classic TV Series Set - all 10 seasons together for the first time in a 23-disc set in totally awesome collectible packaging! Experience the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle saga in this totally tubular 23-disc set of the original animated series, featuring all 10 seasons in one complete cowabunga collection! From their origins on the comic book page to the depths of Dimension X and beyond, the pizza- loving, shell-busting Leonardo, Donatello, Raphael and Michelangelo, with the guidance of their Sensei Master Splinter, have been delighting fans for decades with their turtle power. Whether it's facing fierce enemies Krang, Shredder and Lord Dregg, saving humanity from near extinction, or battling against life-altering mutations, the half-shell heroes are always ready for heart-stopping, time-bending, straight outta the sewer action!"

Joe Wilson is taking part in this year’s Print Club London ‘Blisters, The Directors Cut’ Show. The theme is movies and Joe has gone for a 'Princess Mononoke' inspired piece, our favourite Ghibli feature. You may remember we loved the Olly Moss 'Mononoke' print posted in July too.

The print is a limited edition 4 colour silkscreen print, edition of 40, signed and numbered... available for just £40.00. I'd be surprised if this didn't sell out during the exhibition, it's stunningly good, but any remaining posters will be up for sale online via Joe's online store after the show.

We've posted several of Max Hattler's abstract narrative-free stop-motion films on the Animated Review in the past. His latest film, 'Model Starship' is a continuation of the visuals and the other worldly appearance of these earlier shorts. 'Model Starship' was commissioned as an art film by new fashion magazine 'Journal' and will be followed up with a sequel at an undisclosed date.

As motion graphics surround us in today's digital age, this exciting area of graphic design has become increasingly important in the area of visual communication. Innovative advances in technology have given designers, illustrators, and new artists the means to create cutting-edge work and material using moving images. With its pioneering vision of the motion design scene, 'Moving Graphics' presents stunning examples of the work of a new generation of designers currently pushing the boundaries in this exciting and constantly-evolving sector of the industry.

Divided into four key chapters - Art and Culture, Commercial Advertising, Show-Openers and lastly Fun and Others - 'Moving Graphics' offers a panoramic overview of the dynamic motion graphic design scene, with breathtaking examples of work from international leading designers working across all sectors of the industry.

This book is illustrated by screen grabs, storyboards and sketches, and a short description of the work with information about the project and the designers accompanying each case study. The book includes 2 DVD with extra useful examples of work featured and images from actual motion graphics professionals.

This book is available now via the Animated Review online shop. Click on the shopping basket below:

Initially the idea was to create a film, depicting a character lost in their own subconsciousness, but over the course of the films 3 month production, Gero expanded on the concept and the narrative became increasingly bizarre.

Gero outlines the story for us:

"The Main Character Logan, walks with handicapped motion in a lonely surreal environment, as she battles to survive... Non the less, this does not keep her from going on.

Suddenly, strange creatures with jagged heads and marshmallow body’s creep up on her. At the same time crippled and manipulated spring heads attached to melting bodies would go crazy.

Robot like machines driving in circles and bumping into each other– A hallucinatory trip loaded with unexpected character animation.

Suddenly at the end the “floating Clown”, peacefully and cheerfully floating through the calm thin breeze, interrupts the chaos. However, the floating clown shows negative effects of consumerism thus he is surrounded by orbiting junk."

The seventh film to be released via Cartoon Brew's 3rd annual Student Animation Festival is 'Peace One Day' by Phoebe Halstead and Angie Phillips of London’s Kingston University. The film was made in support of the non-profit organization 'Peace One Day', to raise awareness for The International Day of Peace on September 21st. 'Peace One Day' is a charity which promotes and creates a day of global cease fire as the first step towards world peace. Animation is the perfect medium for such an international message as it transcends all language barriers.

The film-makers collaborative approach towards the animation process reflects the sentiment of the films message. In the film we see two people battle each other as civilizations are built and torn down around them. Sometimes the characters appear abstract, other times we can pick out recognisable uniforms and even historical figures as the combatants wrestle at a frenzied pace. Eventually there is peace and the two characters come together in harmony.

In Nadav Embon's animated Biblical Documentary 'Talk About Samson' we see four characters talk about their encounters with the biblical figure of Samson, reflecting on revenge, romance, death and heroism. It does so in order to push the viewer to question the myth of heroism and redefine who is a hero in their eyes.

The short has been the subject of long intense discussions, via Nadav's YouTube channel and various Israeli websites, on the films message and the legitimacy of criticising a biblical figure. Even as a non Jewish viewer we can see how the short could have stirred such a passionate response, but regardless of your personal take on the message one thing is undeniably true. The animation is first rate with some brilliantly designed characters and exceptionally dynamic sequences.

The world of character figurines is vast and features an ever expanding variety of choice for the collector. We've feature a couple of vinyl creations in recent memory here on The Animated Review including 'The Bart Grin' from Ron English and characters from Studio Yum Yum.

Collectors in recent years have branched out from just vinyl character toys to those made of resin, fabric, wood and now even glass! Californian based glass figurine company Tynies, usually specialising in animal creations, have just released their first licensed character range featuring Hello Kitty and The Smurfs. These cute, minuscule toys will add a new aspect of variety to many peoples collections.

Olesya Shchukina, a Russian animation film-maker based in France, who only recently graduated from La Poudriere has released this sweet trailer for her latest short. In 'Mal De Terre' we see a Russian sailor making their journey home.

The Great Nordic Sword Fights direct music videos, create installations and devise bizarre visual voyages. They combine an unusual mixture of interactive and visual motion technologies to create a very unique identity and experience. This music video with it's distorted video game aesthetic perfectly suits the warped vocals on Birdy Nam Nam track 'Cadillac Dream'. Brilliant!

We've posted about Adam Buxton’s BUG on the Animated Review before, but this latest collaborative offering is bursting with colour and mad imagery from illustrator Jim Stoten and animators the Layzell Bros. This newest piece 'Livin In The Sunlight, Lovin In The Moonlight' is first and foremost an aesthetic treat with more than a hint of 'Yellow Submarine' trippy surreal sillyness.

We know virtually nothing about Kyu Shibayama and their work, but this beautifully elegant animated sequence called 'Darn That Dream' was too good not to share here. If you know anything about the animator in question we'd love to hear from you in the comments section below.

Cartoon Network and Nucleus Gallery in California have come together to present an arty tribute to 'Adventure Tim' featuring over 30 international talents working in a variety of mediums, including a couple of contributions from the UK.

Each contributing artist has created work that interprets the series, characters, or favourite story lines in their own unique styles. The exhibition opened last weekend and runs until early September, if you can't get there in person the entire exhibition is viewable online, although nearly everything has now sold. We've posted a couple of our favourite UK contributions here... Handmade mini figures from Sheffield's TADO and a Marceline puppet by the excellent Felt Mistress.

Bristol based Sun And Moon Studios have illustrated the cover for the 'Imagine Animation Directory 2012/13' the complete reference guide to animation production in the UK and Europe. The design is stuffed with a variety of animation references and the odd nod to Bristol as well. Can you spot and name them all?

'Gum' is the latest short to feature in Cartoon Brew's ongoing 3rd annual Student Animation Festival. Animated by Noam Sussman, the piece has the right blend of trippy bizarre elements and just disorienting enough without being confusing. The highlight is the stop motion foetus sculpted out of actual pink bubble gum, nice!

Ron English has released 'Pop Marilyn Mickeys', which fuses a series of classic pop culture references, through gallery and online print retailer The Outsiders. This signed edition of 50 is a giclee print with a price tag of £375. The original artwork was one of the stand-out pieces at Ron's recent Lazarides Rathbone Gallery show back in June, which is now doubt why it has now been made available in a print format.

The Mill NY designed, produced, directed and created the VFX for this 'Norfolk Southern' spot, combining live action and a variety of 'Toy Story'-esq 3D characters.

Unlike 'Toy Story' no brand names toy were used which created it's own complications, Co-director Angus Kneale explains:

“As we were unable to use brand name toys, it challenged us to create and design our own toys. There are about 22 individually designed main characters with an additional 25 – 30 background characters.” - A monumental amount of work!

Florian Walraven’s 2nd year film from his studies at HKU (Hogeschool voor de Kunsten Utrecht in the Netherlands) see's a knight take on a troll single-handedly! 'Jotun' is excellently executed (no pun intended) and well worth checking out.

'ParaNorman' have secured some pretty special promotional gimmicks in the run up to the films release. The poster collaborations with print supremo's Mondo we featured last month were beautiful.

Now they've collaborated with Nike to create these sneakers in honor of the launch of 'ParaNorman' on August 17th (USA release date). The pair feature some especially nice detailing, including “Weird Wins” embroidered on the pull tags, foam printed green smoke graphic and glow in the dark soles. Awesome!

Bezalel Academy Of Arts And Design students Boaz Balachsan and Dima Tretyakov recorded Israeli children giving their views on God and faith and interpreted their thoughts through animation in 'God Is Kidding'.

The mixed media style, including stop motion, cut-out and 2D hand drawn animation, reflects the different sectors of Israeli society and he wide array of world views represented through the different images of god seen in the film.

Also, the 'God Is Kidding' blog has plenty of development art, from test footage to initial sketches, for you to enjoy.

'PigGoatBananaMantis!' was made a few years back as a pilot, but only recently released online for the general public to see. The network behind the pilot have opted to remain anonymous, they obviously don't want their name associated with the project in any way, which is a shame because it's great! The zany short, created by comic artists Dave Cooper and Johnny Ryan, and animated by Nick Cross, has seemingly gone down very well with people in the few days it' been up on Vimeo. Perhaps if networks released these pilots early to gauge the public's response 'PigGoatBananaMantis!' might have actually made it to become a full series. Shame!

Another excellent animated short from this year’s batch of Bezalel Academy Of Arts And Design graduates.

In 'Beyond' the protagonist is stuck in a mundane waitressing job, where her only escape is experiencing the exciting world outside through objects left behind by the patrons. Chen Heifetz animated this short stop-motion film and she's really captured an interesting aesthetic with the ethereal string world created for the 'dream' sequence.

Aardman and Sony Pictures Home Entertainment have released 'So You Want To Be A Pirate!' on DVD exclusively with Tesco stores across the UK. This all-new short serves as an introduction to Aardman's most ambitious stop-motion film to date 'The Pirates! In An Adventure With Scientists' which is scheduled for it's own DVD release on September 10th.

In the short we see the Pirate Captain, along with the help of his trusted dodo Polly, present hilarious, fun-loving tips and advice on pirating. Learn how to remember where you buried your treasure, the secrets of navigating winds, get an inside look at pirate recruiting and even a pirate's recipe suggestion! The DVD also boasts extras including 'How To Animate Your Pirate', 'How To Draw A Pirate', 'How To Talk Like A Pirate' and 'Printable Colouring Pages' all for just £5.00!

Reut Bortz recently graduated from Bezalel Academy of Art and Design in Jerusalem, Israel, which over the last few years has produced an astounding variety and quality of student animation.

Her graduation piece 'Stitches' asks “whether it is possible to adapt every child to one specific mold?" Bortz defines the short as being "semi-autobiographical" as parts are based on her own experiences growing up, but also reflects the lives of hundreds of other "who feel like they can't be themselves among their own families and communities."

EDIT: Reut Bortz has posted a comment thanking her friend and former Bezalel student Nir Philosof for his assistance on the films production. We're very fond of Nir's work at the Animated Review and have feature a couple of his films in the past, which you can check out here!

As LEGO celebrate their 80th Birthday they take a look back at its history with this short animated film.

The 17-minute video describes LEGO through the eyes of its visionaries, who make up three generations Christiansens: Ole Kirk Christiansen, who created the company in 1932, his son Godtfred, LEGO's second owner, and current owner Kjeld, the founder’s grandson.

Domo Arigato is a new project by Russian (now based in Dusseldorf, Germany) illustrator and art director Magomed Dovjenko, aka Mago.

Essentially the idea of the series is to fuse iconic Japanese anime characters, such as Totoro, Astro Boy, Hello Kitty, Doraemon and Pokemon with luxury fashion and street fashion brands. Louis Vuitton, Chanel, Martin Margiela, Gucci, Stussy, YSL, COMME des FUCK DOWN and others are all featured in one way or another in the design of the characters.

'Impact Debut' is an animation/puppetry sci-fi short created by Jeff Lee and Lynn Okimura, who work together under the name Motion Fiction. Okimura has the animation background, having worked as an animator on HBO’s 'The Life & Times of Tim', whilst Lee's background lies in live action directing.

It's been another fantastic day for TeamGB at the London 2012 Olympics! Fabian Moritz has animated a series of stop motion LEGO reconstructions of the Olympics most iconic and memorable sporting events including Michael Phelps winning his 16th gold in the 200m individual medley final and Usain Bolt winning gold in 100m final. Let's hope the achievements of Mo Farah and Tom Daley are added the collection of short over on the Guardian's website.

Below we've posted the Michael Phelps and Usain Bolt shorts along with a behind the scenes look at the 'Brick-By-Brick' series.

International creative, content and brand communications company Gravity, who have a very impressive client list including Coca Cola, Schweppes, Nestle, Nokia & P&G to name a few, have created this sporty self promotion spot directed by Elad Izhaki & Alex Kizin. 'Get In Shape' is the perfect short to post during the last few days of the London 2012 Olympics.

Jen Lee creates wonderful animated webcomics, her latest, 'Thunderpaw: In The Ashes Of Fire Mountain' made it's début just yesterday and it already looks like it's shaping up to be pretty amazing. We've posted the first "page" below but be sure to visit the 'Thunderpaw' site regularly and keep up with the ongoing saga.

Eoin Duffy, whose 'On Departure' short film trailer featured on the Animated Review back in June, has just posted his entry to the August LoopDeLoop challenge online. In 'The Unconscious Homeless Man' we see a bear take advantage of a passed out drunk, enjoy!

We've already posted some of Tom Whalen's excellent modern vintage style prints in the past, including designs featuring Charlie Brown and Disney characters.

Tom has collaborated with Mondo, who have produced a variety of prints we've featured on the Animated Review, on this new 'Adventure Time' print featuring the Fire Wolf and Snow Golem from the 'Thank You' episode... great episode, great print!

Dan Jacobs graduated from the Manchester School Of Art earlier this year with 'Seen And Not Seen' being his graduation piece. 'Seen And Not Seen' tells the story of a man at unease with himself and his monotonous lifestyle, who seeks refuge through different forms of escapism. The representation of these multiple forms of escapism allowed Dan to utilising a whole host of experimental and traditional animation techniques that all merge to make one cohesive short. Very Impressive!

We've posted quite a few Super Hero inspired fan creations on the Animated Review, most recently Junaid Chundrigar's 'Bad Days' and David Stodolny's 'Everyday Hulk'. This latest comic fanboy short comes from Brett Underhill and features Superman's best friend Krypto...

An interesting departure for animator Anthony Scott, as he teams up with long time friend and indie violinist/filmmaker, Kishi Bashi and his artist wife Mocha of the band Jupiter One. The music video for Kishi's new track 'I Am The Antichrist To You' was shot at Anthony’s home whilst he was in between projects.

Anthony shares a little background on the production:

"I had some downtime between projects and wanted to try something completely different, so I approached my friend K about shooting a music video. I had the time and he had a concept ready to go. We collaborated for 3 months shooting the film, using Skype as a platform for our production meetings. Once I finished my bit, the project sat in post-production limbo for awhile. The original song eventually was replaced with ‘Antichrist’ and was recently released in conjunction with Kishi Bashi’s tour. The new song is both beautiful and mysterious. I am very pleased with the way the video turned out, especially considering it was shot with the simplest and most basic of setups; including a homemade wooden camera rig, paper characters, and a budget of zero. If I could spend the rest of my life making films with friends I would be a happy animator."

The fifth short in Cartoon Brew's 3rd annual Student Animation Festival is 'Pest' by Sheridan College graduate Nooree Kim.

Nooree considers herself to be more of a designer than an animator, her main focus is on designing strong characters first and developing a story around them, playing around with different situations and how these creations would react to one another. The resulting short is inspired, full of silly characters and insanely funny!

East London animation studio Animade (headed up by Tom Judd and Ed Barrett) have released a teaser for the idents they've created for a new Ukrainian children's TV channel called 'PlusPlus'. The idents are a collaboration with graphic design studio Build, who developed the 'PlusPlus' concept, character design (by Edik Katykhin) and typographic alterations & enhancements (by Si Billam), all devised to be dynamic and flexible with the 'PlusPlus' family at the heart of the brand.

As well as the teaser we've posted a couple of the idents in their full glory. The entire series can be seen via Build's Vimeo page.

We've posted some of our favourite pieces here, but the full exhibition is available to view online via the La Luz De Jesus website. Unsurprisingly most of the work has already sold through the website before the exhibition has even opened!

Having only recently graduated from the Bezalel Academy of Art and Design in Jerusalem, Neta Cohen is already showing off her obvious natural talent. She claims that 'Tap To Retry' is her first attempt at stop motion animation, which she has accomplished brilliantly though it's elegant simplicity and inventiveness. 'Tap To Retry' is quite simply stunning!

'Burp' is the title of a new 6-minute CG film directed by Geuntae Park, Jongki Jeon and Kyung Soo Yu, students at the Chung-Ang Univ Animation Lab in Seoul. In the film we see a UFO pursue a pig farmer across the South Korean country side... which sounds pretty weird, right? Watch the film to the end because it gets even weirder! Without giving away too much seeing an animated shite encrusted pig anus rippling in the pull of an alien tractor-beam is not to be missed!

We posted Fraser Davidson's American Football animation 'Irritable Bowl Syndrome' back in January, now he's back this time turning his hand to a piece about Rugby! Created for the Alternative Rugby Commentary blog and their 2012 world tour. Fraser has animated pieces for the ARC before, but this new one takes an 8-bit route.

BAIT and Creative Recreation join forces to fuse classic Creative Recreation styles with iconic Spongebob characters. The collection features a concept that interprets the "off-stage" personalities and lifestyles of Spongebob, Patrick, Squidward, and Mr. Krabs.

These are some of the most wearable animation inspired sneakers we've seen as the cartoon element has been kept relatively subtle. The characters only appear on the footbeds and the attached rubber keychains meaning that you need to take a second look to really figure out that it is a Spongebob infused collection. The four styles employ unique materials inspired by its respective character: including jacquard BAIT camo for Spongebob, pinstripe suiting material for Mr. Krabs, zebra-patterned leather and suede for Patrick and (our favourite) hairy cheetah print for Squidward!

What's more each pair is housed in a special BAIT Spongebob character box, which features cardboard arm and leg pieces that can be attached to form a 3D Spongebob.

Ellen embraces the whimsical possibilities found with animating stop motion which is accentuated by Ellen only utilising materials found lying around in disuse, opting to recycle unused bits and pieces before opting to buy new materials. For example Money Bunny has a steel ball and socket armature whilst Dolly has a wire frame which allows for a contrast in the characters movements. This frugal approach to materials reflects the sentiment of the piece and its message of frustration with financial dependence.

It's a lovely short and probably our favourite of the festival so far!